Taking stock of the world with speed and accuracy

• Data capture plays a crucial role in solving complex location-oriented problems. 
• Data and location intelligence play a pivotal role in transforming the planning, construction and operation of infrastructure projects. 
• Customers are applying location intelligence to all sorts of business and government activity.
• Location is one of the few common frameworks that enables the modelling of that complexity, and thereby planning for a sustainable future.

Chris Jackson, global business development lead for architecture, engineering and construction, Esri Inc. 

Data isn’t all about abstractions. In fact, some of the most important data today relates to space and place.

In the era of smart infrastructure, data and location intelligence play a pivotal role in transforming the planning, construction and operation of infrastructure projects. Unlike in the past, where data collection was laborious and time-consuming, digital technologies now enable the capture and analysis of vast amounts of data with unprecedented speed and accuracy.

Chris Jackson, global business development lead for architecture, engineering and construction at mapping specialists Esri Inc, said that data capture plays a crucial role in solving complex location-oriented problems.

But what kinds of data are captured when working on an infrastructure project, and how does this differ from the past when digital technologies were not available, or at least not commonplace?

“Let’s take an example of a new road. Firstly, we need to capture data about the existing road network and understand why we need a new road in the first place,” Jackson said.

Today, traffic volumes and congestion can be monitored with road sensors and on-board telemetry systems at a rate and accuracy that has historically been challenging.

“Think of people with clipboards and click-counters at road intersections – it was a lengthy and time-consuming process. So technology speeds up our decision-making process right at the outset – and the data we collect can be reused all the way through the project,” he said.

Once a decision is made on a new road, the next obvious question is where to put it. Again this needs to take into account the existing network, Jackson said, as well as ensure that the road improves access to citizens and businesses equally, meaning that it improves social and community cohesion.

“For that we can use local demographic data and neighbourhood statistics, and commercial business data. Then we need to make sure that the road has as little impact on the natural environment as possible. Use of low-orbit satellite imagery and UAVs makes this process significantly easier since we can model and analyse vegetation in ways that were previously impossible,” he said.

This is typically followed by a detailed environmental impact assessment during which more data is collected using mobile phones and lightweight apps that can move data using cellular networks, again increasing the speed at which the data can be analysed, and decisions made.

Critically, all of this data, using the location attribute as the common thread, should be used and referred to continuously throughout the project, he said.

“During construction, we can use sensors, drones, mobile devices, GPS tags – and this enables us to monitor progress much more accurately and faster than ever before,” he said.

“Balfour Beatty Vinci have estimated a saving of £5 million on the HS2 project [in Britain] using drones to capture stockpile volumetrics, not only speeding up the data capture process (from half a day to 20 minutes), but also reducing risks on site [because] field workers no longer have to climb up stockpiles to measure them – sometimes these are 10 metres high.”

However, infrastructure projects are not sui generis when it comes to the importance of location. All kinds of work can make use of spatial information.

“Our customers are applying location intelligence to all sorts of business and government activity,” Jackson said.

That said, infrastructure projects do follow a well-established pattern throughout the life-cycle of ‘plan, design, build, operate’.

“The specific value of the location in this context is its ability to act as a ‘golden thread’ or common framework upon which information can be passed through the stages,” said Jackson.

“And at each stage we are adding value to project information – which ultimately benefits the owner/operator of the asset. This is part of the rationale for the original BIM legislation (now transposed to ISO 19650) – a common challenge for infrastructure projects is information loss between the phases, meaning when information and data is passed from planners to designers, to engineers and then construction professionals. This loss, and lack of understanding of the data, inevitably causes rework and delays.”

Jackson quoted John Muir, who wrote in 1911, “When you try to pick out anything by itself, you find it hitched to everything else in the universe.”

“To me this illustrates not just the complexity of the world around us, but also the deep interconnectedness of everything. And it seems to me that, as we think about our place on the planet, we really haven’t grasped the level of complexity, interconnectedness and consequence of our actions,” he said.

Seen this way, location is one of the few common frameworks that enables the modelling of that complexity, and thereby planning for a sustainable future.

However, data capture should begin before project planning starts in earnest, in order to guide decision-making.

“Planning for any new infrastructure requires a very clear understanding of user needs and outcomes, which should drive how and where the infrastructure will be delivered,” Jackson said.

By providing detailed Geographic Information Systems-derived maps, Esri Inc enables different types of content to be overlaid, analysed and modelled, as well as used for predictive analytics. Overlaying data in this way reveals patterns and insights that might otherwise go unnoticed, or undetected, Jackson said.

“We’ve been developing this technology for over 50 years, and our primary goal has always been to serve our customers and give them the best possible technology,” he said.

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